Friday, July 22, 2011

Flush 'em Friday: The 7 22 11 Edition

A pair of toilet slippersImage via Wikipedia
Happy Flush 'em Friday! It's time to Flush the blogosphere of that which bothers, annoys and irritates you.


My list for this fine Friday, July 22, 2011 is as follows:
  • People who do not know how to merge...you alternate...
  • People who use their turn signals every other turn or after they are already half way through the turn.
  • "Unromantic comedies" about friends having sex.
  • The NFL lockout
  • The NBA lockout
  • Reserve not met messages on ebay. Come on, just list your bottom line price, we know you're not going to sell a Rolex for $0.99.
  • Purple cars...especially if they say Mary Kay...
  • Bruno Mars (my son finds his songs annoying)...
  • People who hate on David Beckman for being old, he is, but ignore how great a passer he still is (better than anyone else in the league).
  • Eldrick "Tiger" Woods for dumping his caddie like one of the waitresses he "loved"
Well, that about does it for this fine Flush 'em Friday.
Except if you have an addition...

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Black Widows, Geocaching and Family

A Geocaching at Spier's in ScotlandImage via Wikipedia
Happy Wednesday to you all, whether you deserve it or not!

I am on vacation this week and as busy as if I was working a 10+ day. It is all good of course because it is with my family. We have discovered the joys of geocaching.  So, we spent the better part of the day at the Botanic Gardens searching for hard to find little containers with the geocaching symbol on them. We found two caches inside the park itself. We also found some Black Widow spiders. The actual caches were fun because I guess you are not supposed to let non geocachers, also known as muggles, see you make the grab. Of course I, at one point, became impatient and just jumped across a barrier and grabbed the thing. Apparently most people just ignore crazy people who jump into bushes and pull out a container with funny markings. They are probably wondering why anyone needs a GPS device to locate a bush. Oh well, many have thought I was crazy for less.

The best part of course is seeing different sites with the family. While my family and I were traipsing around the Botanic Gardens we were amazed at how big it actually was and how much there is to see. If you get a chance to visit the Botanic Gardens in Rancho Palos Verdes, it is well worth it. Plus, every third Tuesday is free. Usually when you go on a site seeing trip you go, walk around and leave. But, with the geocaching I found an extra level of engagement with the kids. With a preteen in the mix, that is a good thing.

By-the-way, we found two on the way home and then stopped for some well deserved frozen yogurt at Yogurtland.

May you find some fun with your family this summer too!
PTVoice out.


Tuesday, July 19, 2011

No Tax Tuesday 7 19 11 Edition

Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)Image via Wikipedia
Happy No Tax Tuesday. I hope you all are enjoying your summer with your families.  Summer soccer is talking up most of our summer nights with two children playing on two different teams. The real trick is trying to feed the family on nights like these without eating out all the time. Which leads me to my No Tax Tuesday rant for the week. 

I am an average man making average money with an average family. How do taxes affect me and my family? First of all they don't help. Paying nearly 10% on just McDonald's for a family of four can be $2.00 a meal. If your family has to do the fast food boogie two or three times a week that can be $6.00 to $10.00 a week easily! $24 to $40 a month is an extra meal for the family! So, via our taxes we sacrifice a meal out a month for the government. What do we get out of that sacrifice? Where I live we get bad roads, bad traffic and schools where the teachers think they are good because I (we) tutor my (our) children to make up for what they are not getting at school. 

Now, when my two oldest children try to get into college, I (according to the government) make to much money and we don't have a last name that will allow us to benefit from any of the "investments" in our government we have made up to this time. To go along with that the cost for attending ANY college or university from a city college to a major UC is rising as I blog, making a college education either just for the wealthy or those whom some liberal elitist feels is more deserving! To demonstrate the foolishness of the system allow me to share a personal experience. I have a friend who just happens to be of a "minority" decent. He works for the same "company" as I do. We have the same pay scale. But, because his children are who they are, they get some help with their SAT scores. In other words, my children have to score a few hundred points higher than his solely because of their color and race. They also get special status as in easy entrance. Fair? My tax dollars at work.

My point? Where are the tax dollars going? Who or what are they benefiting?